Okay, I understand what you are saying, and the customer
wants it, so the customer gets it. And you're right, even
if you default the area code in, whenever you start typing
into the field, the keys entered start right over the area
code characters first.
I have an idea. Why don't you split the fields. Have an
area code and an NPX (the rest of the phone number)
field. You may have to concatenate the two together later
on for other data and sorting issues, however, so much
easier for the customer, right? They (customer) will not
necessarily understand the amount of work that goes into
the situation behind the scenes, however it will give them
what they are looking for.
We have several situations like that here, and actually
ended up splitting the phone three ways. [123] [456]
[7890]... Our DBs realized a greater level of
manipulability with this change as we were able to analyze
on new relationship levels (created new tables with the
123 relationships, 456 relationships, and 7890
relationships). We found that this gave us an estimation
on regional areas as well as timeframe our customers have
lived in the areas. Was fun......

hope it helps